A refined, intelligent open forum for discussion about (mostly) local politics in the Tenth Congressional District and Lake County, Illinois.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Dold too Bold for Carol Sente, So It's Back To the Drawing Board for Dems; Quick, Get Susan Garrett on Speed Dial, Stat!

Not overly surprising, but it turns out that Carol Sente was just toying with everyone when she leaked to Lynn Sweet earlier this week that Sente was thinking about challenging Congressman Bob Dold for the newly-remapped and Dem-friendly 10th Congressional District. The Daily Herald has an article up here, but seems mostly concerned with whether or not fellow State Rep. Sid Mathias will challenge Sente for the 59th legislative district, since he has now been drawn into the district with the latest remap.

Sente put out a press release today stating:

While I am flattered that many constituents and friends asked me to consider running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District, I believe there is too much unfinished business in the General Assembly. The challenges we face in Illinois and in our communities requires dedication, resolve and commitment to put the practices of the past behind us, and it is crucial that we continue to improve upon the reforms we have begun.

I guess cooler advisors and friends must have convinced Sente that the new 10th District wasn't quite drawn as a walk-away for a Dem as some might like to think, or was intended, plus anyone running against Bob Dold is already about a million dollars behind, not to mention facing a three or four-way primary before even getting to the general.

So, Dems, it's back to the drawing board, unless socialist/facist/anarchist Ilya Sheyman is your cup of tea. I bet not a day goes by that Susan Garrett's phone isn't ringing off the hook.

It would be funny if your minions were not, in fact, using those very terms on this blog and you utterly failed to suggest to them, as you do with any poster who isn't walking in arm-banded lock-step with your views, that perhaps they were just a smidge out of line. You fail to admonish some horrendously vile and demeaning comments regarding female office-holders and yet threaten to ban anyone who might dare suggest that certain well-heeled supporters of Dold might be engaged in the stuff that many a US Attorney would call loan sharking. With values that skewed, TA, asking to see your humor is asking a lot. Maybe even more than you deserve.

As the great comedian Mort Sahl said: "A libertarian is an anarchist with credit cards". And in your previous post it is always good to be so openly racist in the 21st century. I guess it helps the "Republican brand".

Rob Nev reminds me of Robin Williams' senior officer in Good Morning Vietnam, who is the most in need of something than any white man in history. Rob, You need to chill baby, and save all your clever progressive hopey changey hate-mongering for next year when it counts.

Got caught putting ants on a girl in Kindergarten, "I was just joking." Got caught sending phony valentines in grade school, "It was supposed to be funny." Got caught knocking a kid's books to the floor in junior high, "Can't he take a joke?" Got caught slandering a political candidate, it was "supposed to be funny." This is just juvenile. Have the courage to stand behind what you say. Want people to take you seriously, young man? Try acting like an adult.

It's early in the game for all of this truly inane chatter. Hard to imagine that it will be Ilya vs Dold, but who knows. Going through the just posted FEC reports one notes that Ilya's money comes from a vast number of donors nationally. Could that be the network of MoveOn.org? Regardless, it makes for interesting reading. Lee Goodman is an Ilya supporter together with the Borris family. Foklaes called it right about the Schnieder supporters. Bob Dold's impressive showing, by and large from supporters here in the area, continues to be outstanding. Politico has a piece about Bob Dold being in second place nationally for this quarter's fundraising. It's more than a year from the election so many things can change.

Wow these are some of the most pathetic attacks on TA I've ever seen. The reality is that he's taking a shot at a candidate that's not even close to being a real contender. So stop wasting your time defending this minor league candidate and come back when you have someone who understands that the tenth expects an aisle crossing moderate, not a left or right wing stalwart.

Your buzziness? You missed the point. TA's cabal has sunk to this whole "he's a communist" melodrama. But rather than step up to the plate and try to bee a man, he just let it go. He also lets the likes of foklaes spew his bile-ridden, spittal-laden fomentations with nary a 'down-boy'. You also dip into the darkness on occasion as well, so I guess I can see why you might wish to allow TA to play the can't-you-see-I-was-kidding game. But the rest of us think TA's getting distastefully bitter. Perhaps he's tired of getting utterly scooped by The Eye?

schneider is an evan bayh type democrat which means he's too conservative for that party and will not win the primary. He'll win some newspaper endorsements because he has an mba and isn't still in diapers, but that's as far as he'll go.

Scheyman has 0 chance of winning election to congress no matter how many ads democrats hit dold with for his ryan plan vote, but his command of the nutwing of that party will make it hard for others to get in and win.

I still think national democrats will spend the next 6 weeks trying to recruit someone for this seat, garrett, schoenberg, the merchandise mart kennedy, a former obama official, someone because they can't win congress without this seat and right now don't have a candidate in the field who can do that.

Anon 1:05 - what exactly are you just sayin'? The Eye was not the exclusive doubter that Carol Sente was less than serious about the 10th: On July 11, 9:55 am, we wrote:

Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that State Rep. Carol Sente (D-Vernon Hills) of the 59th District is thinking about throwing in for the newly-remapped 10th District. How real this thought might be and how much might be a little vanity on Sente's part remains to be seen.

So, looks like the Eye and I agreed. BTW, I love the Eye - they throw a lot of blog hits my way, since they seem rather obsessed with us, sometimes. Plus, their sometime bizzare sense of humor makes us here look rather tame.

Louis, Are you trying to be funny, too, like Team America? Almost all of the posts that ever appear on this blog are anonymous. You are one of the only real names that ever appears. Even the blog's owner doesn't identify himself. And so you know, I am one of the anonymous posters today, but I did not post all of the anonymous comments. More than one person, and maybe several, are critical of the unsupported and mean-spirited name calling.

Oh Louis, there you go again. Think about your first comment. In court, if you raised an objection to testimony in court because, say, the witness wasn't dressed properly, you know the court would tell you it was not germane and tell you to sit down. Here, unlike court, anonymous posts are permitted. Bloggers can set the preferences so that they are not. So, speak to substance or sit down and hold your forked tongue.

I have, in the past, posted under my own name and actually got a call from someone, at my home. I found that intrusive and told that to the GOP official. I went so far as to contact the Illinois Inspector General, who agreed. I asked them to take no further action at the time, but it now stands that the next call from that individual will trigger a full-on investigation. TA's cabal with the likes of Cook and Castella and Venturi are not shy about intimidation, impotent as it might be, especially in Castella's case. Note should be taken also that TA himself brought this on by a failed attempt to out Senator Bond as an annonymous commenter, even though, based on the time stamp, he was on the floor of the Senate.

I find it funny that you want a moniker. What, can't handle the time stamp thing? I also note that you were silent when the right-wing nut-jobs started this whole, Sheyman's a communist bunk.

"Anon, are we supposed to debate your venality and name calling while you remain anonymous?"

YOUR VENALITY? NAME CALLING?

Read up, folks. The point here was that commenters on this blog, anon ones at that, have repeatedly referred to Sheyman as a communist and a bolshevik, but TA and our master of pompous bloviation, Louis, remained silent. But call a Dold big-money hitter a loan shark, and TA threatens to ban the poster. Louis and Foklaes are the biggest name-callers on the block, but that's just because their boat always seems to be falling behind in discussions of substance. Louis whips out his tin-foil-hat reference every time his arguments loses steam. The anon posts above were neither venal or resorted to name calling. They characterized foklaes' posts, not the individual. (Who, we all know is Louis himself, because it's good to be your own fan club. Or, someone's gotta do it!) But, what the hell, why not?!?

Anon at 11:09 - the name is Falbe, Larry Falbe. I have addressed this often before. Team America is a nom de plume, and a few minutes of research on this blog, Lake County Eye, the Daily Herald, and/or other blogs that shall remain nameless because we don't like to plug them, brings up plenty of references to my name. I go by TA here because it's more fun to be TA on this blog than Larry.

So you have mine, show us yours.

Well, actually, no one here probably cares. But you could at least pick a nickname so we can keep track of you.

the question that needs to be asked of 10th dems is are you satisfied with your current field? not what did team america say in a blog post. Do you really think an extreme leftwing 21 year old is ready to be your next congressman or are you ready to support a right wing democrat with no political experience in schneider?

PS team america-any chance we can get a syllabus from alexi giannoulias's course he's teaching this fall at Northwestern?FOKLAES

TA's article mentions that State Reps. Sente and Mathias might run against each other, but it doesn't mention the conservative Republican, in that district. Greg Jacobs announced that he's running for state rep., in the 59th District, since he thinks that Rep. Mathias is as liberal as many Democrats.

Greg Jacobs no better than a trojan horse sent to us by Michael Madigan. The 59th is a very strong Dem district, and only Mathias with his DEEP roots in BUffalo Grove gives us a chance to etch this district out so we mitigate some of the loss from redistricting.

Oh Louis, don't be such a baby! In all your whining, you never once responded to the substance of the arguments here. Silence being an admission after you've had an opportunity to speak, you accept TA's endorsement of the nasty comments of your bro-mance buddy and all the rest of the Red-Scourge hunters. You're a boob, Louis. A hack and a Boob.

But, if it makes you feel more warm and fuzzy, I am the poster from 7/16 9:44, 12:33, 1:02, 8:29, 7/17 11:10am. Happy now, (pardon me while I use a phrase one of your minions used on Lake County Eye) you pathetic d-bag!

5 years of this blog. there have been heated exchanges-I am guilty of probably most of them, although rob n, and fielding have had a few, but don't think it's ever reverted to this. play nice in the sandbox or find another one where you can throw sand in other peoples faces. Team America shouldn't have to waste an off cycle summer editing words like dbag.

Your douchery floors me. So typical. Wow! What a finding! People involved with the legislature who live outside of a certain mileage circle of Springfield actually get a stipend or prearraged lodging at a contracted rate. Great work - I wait in great anticipation for your solving of the Lindbergh Baby caper! Maybe you can track down some juicy tidbits on the other people that are in that lease amount such as what type of corn is in their stool or somthing of that nature.

July 5, 2011 11:04 AM

If TA's minions feel it appropriate call candidates communists and pollute the Lake County Eye with this sort of nastiness, then perhaps such a moniker would be also be appropriate.

But it was a little crude, and demeaning to women, so I apologize for it. Consider my cyber-mouth washed out with Dr. Bronner's soap.

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About Me

Just call me Team America. "TA" for short. I'm a lawyer (but a nice guy nevertheless), family man, moderate Republican and active in local politics, but someone who tries to keep an open mind and a healthy respect for differing views. While I may disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.